Day 10 - Decisions & Exhaustion

We’ve reached double figures! And, excited as I am about how everything is sounding, I must confess to being absolutely, completely exhausted.

Even though all of my guitar parts are recorded and all I’m doing at the moment is sitting back and listening to other musicians working, I still feel like I need a break. It’s a bit like traveling. Even though very little physical exertion is required, you still arrive at your destination feeling a bit like you have a terrible hangover. Or, conversely, like you need a drink. Somehow I feel both.

The picture on the right accurately represents how I have spent most of today’s session. But having just refuelled with some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (if you don’t already know, find out; you won’t regret it – unless you have a nut allergy in which case you will almost certainly regret it) I now feel a bit more perky.

I think the most tiring part of these sessions has been trying to make the right decisions about how each track should sound. There are just so many options, all the time.

Does it need a drum track?
Double-bass or regular bass?

Shall we throw in a guitar solo?

Are the backing vocals cheesy? 

The list is goes on and on…

The temptation of course is to layer every track with drums, bass, and everything else available – but I’m trying my hardest to shy away from doing that. Otherwise, the danger is that your album becomes a bit like a roast dinner with too many trimmings. It looks great, but all the flavours muddle together into a mush, and you forget how each bit was supposed to taste. Much better to have a modest selection of trimmings and appreciate each one, I reckon. Hooray for carrots! (It occurs to me that I genuinely should apply this logic to a Sunday roast sometime. I might end up less disgustingly full than I did after Mum’s roast lamb last night.)

Back to the point. Making this follow-up album, I realise that having lots of creative people in the studio at all times when I made the first one was a luxury I took for granted. Back then, we weren’t working to a tight deadline and most of the guesting musicians were students who didn’t have anything better to do but hang around in the studio for as long as they were needed. This time, people are working around full time jobs, kids and general grown-up real life. (Boring!)

Regardless, it’s so important to have people to bounce ideas off, and I’ve really valued the input from Lukas, Barnaby, Harry, Matt, Ben and everyone else when they’ve popped in. It’s been great having Rowan with me for the last few days; he knows most of the songs better than I do (I can scarcely remember which key any of them are in) and hearing his thoughts on what we’ve already recorded has been a really useful for the process.

Anyway, today’s been extremely productive despite my relative uselessness. Rowan’s been wearing his one-take-wonder hat. He’s recorded his guitar parts for Make It Quiet, Shoes, Money, and Carry Me (Parts I & II), with little splicing required. This has eased the time pressure a little, and means that tomorrow we can play about with the Hammond organ. Fun!

Until then, here's a little clip of Rowan layering some harmonics over the top of some guitar, cello and guide vocal tracks, for Carry Me (Part II).